For a variety of reasons there should be no problem with performing
legally obtained phonorecordings as background music for the college
function. But none of them are related to music, "which will not be
recorded, or advertised as a performance or anything, and which will
require an invitation." These conditions have no bearing. There is no
similarity between playing music in a restaurant and the situation you
describe. Restaurants pay (or should pay) a subscriber license fee to
ASCAP to play music in their establishments or subscribe to something
like Muzak. Music and video played in a video/music store for the
purposes of "promoting sales" or featuring an artist or video for sale
have no such requirement BTW.

If the college counsel office is uncomfortable with this, check with
ASCAP title by title on the play list.

Mark Richie
Burlco EMTC
NJ

Andrea Slonosky wrote:

> Hello great collective,> > My apologies in advance for bringing up yet another copyright > question. However, this is not one that I've seen addressed here > before, or at least it hasn't come up often enough to be seared into > my neural network! Also, this is not about films, but about music, > which I imagine many of you dealing with multimedia collections might > have some experience with, or may at least be able to direct me to an > appropriate resource.> > There is a proposal here to put up a jazz related exhibition in the > library. At the little reception that is planed for the exhibit, the > organizers would like to play some jazz music in the background. The > music would come from our own collection of music recordings - none of > them rare or unique - all of them purchased through library vendors. > One of the library administrators has asked if there will be any > copyright issue in this situation.> > Can anyone tell me if there would be a copyright issue with the > situation described? I have looked through the Music Librarians > Association's copyright page, amongst others, and haven't found > anything about this type of situation. Mulling it over, it seems to me > that if we want to play music we own at one of our functions, (which > will not be recorded, or advertised as a performance or anything, and > which will require an invitation) than we should be able to do so. I > don't think there's any problem with, for example restaurant > owners/staff playing their own CDs in the establishment, is there? > This seems to be a pretty similar situation.> > > All thoughts on this topic will be much appreciated.> > Andrea Slonosky> Media Librarian> Brooklyn Campus Library> Long Island University>